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Saturday, February 26, 2011

School board elections are fast approaching. New Jersey has a web page dedicated to the 2011 Annual School Board Election Timeline. This year's deadline for filing nominating petitions is noon on 8 March, which is fifty days before the school board elections, which are scheduled for 27 April.

The three board members whose 2008-2011 terms are coming to an end this year are the President of the Board, Charles Kenny (Matawan); Jan Rubino (Aberdeen), whose service on the board was suspended by the state through the end of her term; and Martin Ruprecht (Aberdeen). I've not yet heard which if any of these members will seek re-election.

A review of the MARSD website didn't reveal any public notices or calendar entries related to the upcoming filing deadline or the school board election itself. The 2 May school board reorganization meeting is listed.

According to Linked In, Mr Larchuk is a telecommunications software engineer who has worked with Bell Labs and Lucent for more than 15 years. He has an interest in hypnosis and ran a hypnosis center in Red Bank in 2004. He recently returned to school and earned his MBA at Rutgers Newark.

Mr Daniels is one of two principals at Hope Academy Charter School in Asbury Park. He was featured in American Profile in 2007 as an educator who occasionally uses ventriloquism to teach. He was listed as Dean of Students at Hope Academy in 2007. He performed at Aberdeen Day in 2004 as a ventriloquist.

3 comments:

I've updated this article with the names of the candidates for Matawan/Aberdeen school board, plus some details about the new ones. Since they are running unopposed, these men will be the new additions to the MARSD board, barring unforeseen circumstances.

I looked at the LinkedIn listing for Dr. Larchuk and I wonder why you left out the fact that he has a Ph.D. from Columbia University in experimental quantum physics and in fact has five university degreess, including three master's degrees. Seems to me this guy is the most qualified candidate we've ever had running for the board. All the parents want their kids to go to Ivy League schools. This guy has four Ivy League degrees. Maybe we should pay attention to what this guy has to say. And by the way, you should use his academic title and call him Dr. Larchuk, not Mr. Larchuk.

It wasn't my intent to bury Dr Larchuk's light under a bushel, if that is what you thought. I provided the LinkedIn hyperlink where you found this additional information. Rejoice in his high qualifications to deal with physics and cryptology. Just don't tell me that his higher education is going to have a Pied Piper effect on your kids. I know plenty of engineers from Bell Labs and all are extremely well educated. But I'm not sure any of them are particularly outfitted to run our school system by virtue of their engineering degrees.

I don't know Dr Larchuk and can't comment on his ability to steer our Board through stormy seas, but presumably neither do you. His recent MBA plus his years in higher learning may very well give him some useful ideas on how to run the district. But then again, maybe not. We don't know.